Article and personnel inspection systems and methods range from labor-intensive and intrusive manual searches to mechanized systems that use non-intrusive x-ray or electromagnetic wave imaging to expose concealed articles, damage, etc. For example, most weapons detections systems rely on the concealed weapons having x-ray absorption greater than the concealing articles or the concealed weapon and having electrical conductivity large enough to be detectable by radiated electromagnetic waves. Weapons such as ceramic knifes or plastic guns (with little or no metal content) or disassembled distributed weapons are undetectable by most non-intrusive inspection devices. These are low density systems that have been made from low density materials or made low density by distributing components through a larger volume.
In another example, the degraded electrical properties of insulation surrounding conduction wires is known to have caused fatal aircraft crashes. Most insulation integrity systems are not capable of non-intrusive quantitative detection and characterization of insulation degradation.
The co-pending United States Patent Application Number 2012-0199755 A1, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, discloses an electric field quantitative measurement system which is based upon Electric Field Imaging (EFI) to overcome the disadvantages of the prior systems. An externally generated electric field is created to interrogate and inspect objects. A complication arises where large magnitude electric field strengths over large areas are needed to allow the electric field to remotely interact with and pass through the object of interest, and to do so without the electric field source being in physical contact with the object. Physical contact with the electric field source is prohibited, where electric field distortion, arcing and dangerously high current levels can occur if physical contact is made. During EFI inspections, uniform or controlled non-uniform interrogating electric fields are required to make quantitative assessments of the inspection results.
One key feature of EFI is that components that are sensitive to electric fields all have leakage currents that move electrical charges within the component to reduce the effect of the applied electric field. This is addressed in electrical systems by using dynamic fields that oscillate rapidly (described by Maxwell's equations) to counter the effects of intrinsic component current leakage while generating oscillatory (over 10 KHz) electrical currents as used in radio wave frequency (RF) reception.
Previous generation of large magnitude electric fields are based on electronic circuitry voltage doubling-tripling, step-up transformers, or by electrostatic approaches. Voltage doubling-tripling and step-up transformers are often highly lethal systems that need to have extensive safety guards in place to prohibit tampering or access to lethal components. Electrostatic approaches, such as a Van de Graaff device, are often more safe to use due to the low currents (microamps) produced. These Van de Graaff systems are limited in applicability because of the special configurations used to produce large constant voltage potentials such as those required for linear particle accelerators. Typical electrostatic applications generate fixed large magnitude electric fields that terminate on electrically conducting surfaces that form charged particle focusing elements. These electrostatic approaches are physically fixed structures operating to generate fixed electrical potential levels and do not generate the quasi-static electric fields required for EFI.
A generator which is used with the electric field quantitative measurement system of United States Patent Application Number 2012-0199755 A1 is provided herein which provides improvements to existing structures and which overcomes the disadvantages presented by previous technologies. Other features and advantages will become apparent upon a reading of the attached specification, in combination with a study of the drawings.